MONTEREY PARK >> An innocent Pico Rivera man was fatally shot by deputies in the head and right leg in a fusillade of gunfire, interim Los Angeles County Sheriff John Scott admitted Thursday during a highly unusual news conference.

Frank Mendoza, 54, was mistaken by deputies for a fugitive sought in connection with a parole violation. The deputy who delivered the fatal shot was just 15 to 18 feet away from Mendoza when he fired. Scott has refused to name the shooter, who is a 13-year veteran of the department.

“This was a highly dynamic event, in which deputy sheriffs were forced to make split-second decisions in an effort to rescue family members from the home,” Scott said.

Officials continue to claim they are withholding the deputy’s name for “safety reasons.” The deputy has been taken out of his patrol unit and assigned a desk job, sheriff’s officials said.

Scott’s press conference was called to discuss results of an autopsy performed on Martinez by the Los Angeles County Department of Coroner.

Officials with the coroner’s office, who deemed Martinez’s death a homicide, said their autopsy report wasn’t complete, and were at a loss to explain how the sheriff’s department obtained a copy of a nonexistent document. Two homicide detectives attended the actual autopsy, but only a medical examiner is qualified to describe wounds and cause of death, coroner’s officials said.

Nonetheless Thursday a timeline of events surrounding of Mendoza’s killing began to emerge.

At about 5 p.m. Aug. 1, sheriff’s deputies, along with a probation officer went to a house on 9000 block of Reichling Lane, in search of wanted parolee Cedric Ramirez, 24, officials said.

When he spotted the officers, Ramirez jumped a shared fence and landed in the backyard of Mendoza’s house in the 9000 block of Rosehedge Drive.

Deputies assigned to the Pico Rivera substation were notified. Four arrived and began searching the area and a containment was set up in an area that included both Rosehedge and Reichling as well as Rosemead Boulevard and Lindsey Avenue.

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When he first was spotted in Mendoza’s backyard, Ramirez shot at the officers, with at least one of them returning fire and possibly wounding the suspect.

Once in the Mendoza’s backyard, Ramirez, who was wanted as an ex-felon in possession of a firearm and taking a vehicle without consent, broke into the Mendoza house through a window at the rear.

“He brazenly broke into the home of an innocent family, ultimately taking a hostage,” Scott said.

As deputies went to the front of the house, some family members — an unidentified adult male and two children — escaped through the front door. Ramirez again fired at deputies from a position in an interior hallway, Scott said.

Within seconds of those shots being fired, Mendoza appeared in the living room and moved toward the front doorway.

“Based on the quick movement of the individual,” Scott said, “a deputy positioned in the front yard thought he was the suspect trying to seek a position inside the front of the home to assault other deputies located outside the window.

“Believing he was an immediate threat to his partners, the deputy fired twice, striking the man, who fell to the floor just inside the front door.”

The dead man was identified as Mendoza.

Ramirez remained inside the home with Mendoza’s 60-year-old wife, Lorraine Munoz, as hostage.

At 1:30 a.m. Saturday, after hostage negotiators failed to convince Ramirez to release Munoz, and give himself up, a sheriff’s special weapons team entered the home and rescued Munoz.

Ramirez was shot and killed by deputies after the eight-hour standoff.

Mendoza is not the first innocent to be shot and killed by deputies this year.

In April, deputies in West Hollywood mistakenly shot and killed John Winkler, 30, an aspiring television producer.

Winkler was “hanging out” with some friends who lived in the apartment below him on Palm Avenue when a man who also lived in that apartment took them hostage at knifepoint, authorities said.

Deputies, responding to a 911 call that someone was threatening residents with a knife, were told to look for a thin man in a black shirt.

After knocking on an apartment door, a man with blood coming from his neck ran out from behind the door, with Winkler running close behind.

He was thin and wearing a black shirt.

Three deputies fired four shots, one mortally wounding Winkler.

The investigation is ongoing.

As for the shooting in Pico Rivera, Scott said, “We were trying to only fire in the direction from where the shooting was coming from.”

Officials said Ramirez was armed with a revolver, with additional ammunition.

Scott said the deputies who were involved are devastated by the situation and claimed that there was no “trigger happiness” during the standoff.

“They’ve been through a lot, and we were responsible in large part,” admitted Scott after an investigation by his department concluded it was one his deputies who who made the fatal shot.

“But as I said in the beginning,” he continued, “let’s not forget this suspect started this whole thing.”

The sheriff’s department has been in continuous contact with the Mendoza family since the incident happened, and is helping with housing and funeral arrangements.

Staff Writers Venusse Navid and Jason Henry, as well as the Associated Press contributed to this story